Payment to the bank under sanctions

[zgordan_vv]

I withdrew funds from Upwork to the bank under USA sanctions. Will it be returned to Upwork or it will be lost forever?

[megamozg]

Hello, I'm have same question. AlfaBank was not in sanctions, but today my pay methods disapear, I succesfully added it again without any warnings, request get paids. Latter found it hear updated: https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/financial-sanctions/recent-actions/20220224

I can say good bye my earnings?

Thank you.

[zgordan_vv]

Actually my method still not disappeared, money have gone, also they said in the bank that most likely the payment will be returned to the sender (it is actually in rubles), but I don't see anything so far.

[ericaandrews]

Alfa Bank was added to the U.S. sanctions list yesterday and it says the 'effective date' is March 26, 2022 ("Effective Date (EO 14024 Directive 3): 26 Mar 2022")   However, that doesn't mean your payment method is guaranteed to work up until 3/26/2022.  Keep in mind, this is just the list of sanctions from the United States.  The European Union &  NATO countries are also issuing their own sanctions, which may have 'effective dates'  that vary or are earlier than 3/26/2022.  If you have clients in other countries besides the U.S. that are issuing their own sanctions, you might want to check their list of sanctions too.   My advice would be to switch to an un-sanctioned payment method (if there even is one) as soon as you can, if possible.

[zgordan_vv]

And based on your experience what happens with such payments, they do return to Upwork or disappear?

[megamozg]

Hello, today is sheduled time to get paids in my account, but I'm check it now and have no payment methods... Should I add them again or it some kind of error? (no situations like this before)

Does anyone has same problem?

Thank you!

[sparkesusan]

I don't withdraw my funds to a bank, as I use PayPal. From there, I can put it in the bank or just leave it there. This is going to be a mess for a while, I can see that. For now, I have no clients in Russia or Ukraine, but have had many in the past. I guess I got lucky. At this time, if I work for anyone in Europe, I'm going to ask as they may have their money in a sanctioned bank and I would like to be paid. It behooves all of us to do our due diligence and check check check.

[zgordan_vv]

I used Paypal and it was handy but it is not suitable for legal business in Russia so I left it.

[sparkesusan]

Wow, I've never had a problem, but we may be doing business differently. So it works for me. 

[ericaandrews]

Paypal, Payoneer, etc may not be good 'work arounds' for sanctioned banks/payment methods.  Payoneer, Paypal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc are all based in the U.S. and bound by the same sanctions - so, even if you can get money ONTO those methods, you might not be able to get the money OUT Of Paypal and into a bank in Russia.   Payoneer actually got hit with serious fines a couple years ago for trying to continue to allow transactions in sanctioned areas/countries.  PayPal is a much bigger company and has a lot more to lose, so I don't see them risking the same legal problems.

https://www.complianceweek.com/sanctions/ofac-fines-payoneer-14m-for-sanctions-violations/30621.arti...

Apple Pay, Google Pay already not working

https://finance.yahoo.com/finance/news/customers-banks-targeted-russia-sanctions-134136870.html

[sparkesusan]

Again, as independent contractors, freelancers must do their own due diligence and research and are responsible for knowing what the rules are. I suggest you read through the sanctions and executive order and go from there. https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/financial-sanctions/recent-actions/20220224 this has been updated and will continue to be updated. You can sign up for updates.

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Vyacheslav, 

The United States and other countries have sanctioned a number of banks, which means that we and our payment processors can no longer support these banks.  In addition, it is possible there will be outages due to infrastructure or other issues that may impact your ability to make and withdraw payments. Further, we are having difficulty processing wires to certain regions due to partner limitations. In the event that an in-progress transaction is initiated to a sanctioned bank, these funds may be returned to Upwork, but would depend upon the bank’s timeframe for transaction reversals. Note that if these funds are returned to Upwork, this may take time as they may be subject to a banking hold. To determine what alternative payment options are available or to update your payment method used to make payments, you may click here.  For selecting an alternate withdrawal method, you may click here.
Also, I encourage you to check out this resource page for more information and updates.

[zgordan_vv]

Thanks for the useful information